Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Same as gownsman.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Archaic form of gownsman.

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

gown +‎ man

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Examples

  • In this high post he showed a spirit as elevated; but it was rather a military spirit than that of the gownman, -- magnificent to excess in his living and appearance, and distinguishing himself in the tournaments and other martial sports of that age with much ostentation of courage and expense.

    The Works of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Vol. 07 (of 12) Edmund Burke 1763

  • A mere soldier little values the character of eloquence: A gownman of courage: A bishop of humour: Or a merchant of learning.

    A Treatise of Human Nature David Hume 1743

  • A mere soldier little values the character of eloquence: A gownman of courage: A bishop of humour: Or a merchant of learning.

    A Treatise of Human Nature 1739

  • For their speculations on this subject are wholly poetical; they have only their fancy for their guide; and that, being sharper in an excellent poet, than it is likely it should in a phlegmatic, heavy gownman, will see farther in its own empire, and produce more satisfactory notions on those dark and doubtful problems.

    The works of John Dryden, $c now first collected in eighteen volumes. $p Volume 04 John Dryden 1665

  • In Cambridge parlance it was a slang term for ` anyone not a gownman, i.e. a townsman. '

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol VIII No 1 1981

Comments

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  • "Cannot give guarantee required", in the shorthand notation of railroad telegraphy. --US Railway Association, Standard Cipher Code, 1906.

    January 22, 2013